three weeks of deadly sniper attacks around washington d.c. ten dead three wounded. trent lott resigns as senate republican leader after praising retiring senator strom thurmon, but the top story of the year, the war on terror continued and u.s. and afghan troops continued the largest ground assault in the u.s. led military campaign since the war began in october of 2001. what did you think of the press coverage as the war began there? >> i think that the afghanistan war back then was very popular to cover. i think that was, as cal indicated, that's when the country was really united behind among other people president bush. we remember president bush's pitch in the yankees world series 2001, but that halo of goodwill ga goodwill carried over to 2002. >> jon: cal, your take there? >> well, i think that the unity was good and we all celebrated including the media and many remember the controversy over american flag lapel pins not only on this network, tom brokaw on nbc had to defend himself not wearing the american flag pin and got to be incredibly silly. the job of t